More than half of Activision Blizzard's revenue came from Microtransactions in 2017

Micropayments now account for most of the company's revenue

More than half of Activision Blizzard's revenue came from Microtransactions in 2017

Activision Blizzard has released their 2017 financial results, revealing record high revenues of $7.16 billion throughout 2017, an increase of over £560 million over the previous year.

What is more astounding is that the company has officially made more money from microtransactions than full games, earning a total of £4 billion directly from microtransactions and other downloadable or subscription content.

Activision Blizzard owns King, which grossed $2 billion in revenue from their mobile games. The other $2 billion came from microtransactions in other markets, primarily the console and PC games. This $2 billion comes from a variety of games, such as Destiny, Overwatch, Hearthstone and World of Warcraft, accounting for cosmetics, DLC packs, card packs (Hearthstone) and World of Warcraft subscriptions.

The company did not discuss microtransactions in great detail during their investors call, attempting to avoid the same criticisms as rival companies like EA and Warner Brothers. Even so, it is unlikely that the company will make any moves away from microtransactions, especially given the popularity of these add-ons Overwatch, Call of Duty, Destiny and more.

So far, Activision Blizzard has remained largely untouched by the microtransactions/"loot box" debate that has raged throughout 2017, mostly thanks to the fact that the majority of their microtransactions are cosmetic and overall less nerve-striking as those seen in Star Wars: Battlefront II and Need for Speed: Payback.

It is likely that Activision Blizzard will continue to tap into this money making scheme with the same light touch manner, generating profit while other developers/publishers take the heat from the controversy surrounding loot boxes.

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